Show me your (lack of) rocker panels: seeking ideas

I removed the rocker panels from my car, and am not sure I like the look. I like the curvature at the bottom of the rockers, but it seems to end too "high" on the car in relation to the other side panels.. I may spray schutz over the area, but am still pondering. Current plan is to make a thin polished stainless "spear" that covers up the holes left by the rocker panel attachment screws. Wondering what others have done.



Also, my car had some odd sealed-off holes under the driver's side rocker panel, covered with some kind of plastic plugs (photo arrows). Anyone have something similar or know what this was about? It almost looks like a hole for rustproofing application like companies like Ziebart used to use, but this is the only place I have found these on the car.



Gratuitous airport shot. Not positive what the fuselage in the right foreground is from.

[RSBob]

Understand your design angst. I took the rockers on and off three times until I decided to ditch them. Why? Looks cleaner and less chunky/bulky. Save a few pounds having them off. You know, a pound here and a pound there... ultimately 150 lbs weight reduction which is quite noticeable. I put in the smallest plugs I could find and painted them body color.

Originally Posted by RSBob

Understand your design angst. I took the rockers on and off three times until I decided to ditch them. Why? Looks cleaner and less chunky/bulky. Save a few pounds having them off. You know, a pound here and a pound there... ultimately 150 lbs weight reduction which is quite noticeable. I put in the smallest plugs I could find and painted them body color.

You've done to your front bumper pretty much what I want to do with mine. Is it aluminum, or a fiberglass piece?

[Superman]

My car is lowered, sans rockers, sans rear valence. Am thinking about having Marv breathe on my rockers and perhaps put them on, but that is low priority. I am something of a minimalist.




Your car is white. That can make a difference.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Corgs, the "rockers off" look makes a 911 appear like it must be fresh out of the body shop but still waiting on backordered parts (aka - looks sloppy and unfinished) . . . not to mention it makes them appear to be standing on stilts

[fred cook]

I decided they had to go. I painted the oil lines and a/c hose ends black to help hide them or at least make them less conspicuous. I had all the screw holes filled when it was being painted. A picture:

[AG81]

I wish the 88 model year was as friendly toward this mod as the early 80's.

[Jonny042]

I bet the narrow rocker deco trim could be used to cover the attachment holes near the door without being too onerous to fit.

That and a bit of black paint on lowest bits including the jacking points.

EDIT - I've also considered painting a bit of black on the lowest portion of the rear bumper finishing panels behind the rear tires to visually raise the rear.

Your car needs to be much lower for it to look right, don't lower it too much without raising the spindles and definitely cut the bumpstops front and rear.

[4flyboy]

Cool idea for a thread......anybody have shots of their widebody's sans rockers?

Hope you don't mind the tag madcorgi !

[Jonny042]

PS - the plastic plugs are normal and factory for at least some years.

[Flojo]

According to my taste, G-bodies with their bulkier impact bumpers need the sideskirt to close the line optically between them.
Unless it is a race-/trac car that inherits of weight saving, I'd leave them on.

Only longhoods look good without These.

[Rob T.]

Originally Posted by RSBob

Understand your design angst. I took the rockers on and off three times until I decided to ditch them. Why? Looks cleaner and less chunky/bulky. Save a few pounds having them off. You know, a pound here and a pound there... ultimately 150 lbs weight reduction which is quite noticeable. I put in the smallest plugs I could find and painted them body color.

As Bob said. Less weight, and looks even lighter to me. Here is my white one.

[dwelle]

i dumped my rockers, and anything else that wasn’t really necessary. i think having the car low helps make it work...

[blucille]

I'll play. Many years ago, I did a temporary tweak, RUF bumper, delete rockers, and drive to SoCal where I had the car painted. To get it 'good enough' I found some plastic plugs at home depot and dabbed some silver paint on them...and then had the holes welded shut during the paint job.

Here's the in-between and the 'after'

[75 911s]

That looks awesome blucille ^

I think it helps if the car is low. It also works better in person. Because you are typically standing and your field of vision is much higher than most photographs. When we take good car photos we get low and that sort of reveals one problem with no rockers, which is that it makes the car look higher in the middle.

FWIW AIR makes a fiberglass rocker which I was looking into. I can't justify putting the heavy rockers and rubber back on my build. I have thought about the lightweight 'glass ones and then painting them full body color. So it would be similar to a 964 look.

I've had the rockers on and off a half dozen times. Each time, it just looks heavy and sort of bumper car -ish. I do think they work better on SC's but my narrow body has some early car queues like bright work and a chrome mirror, so the sans rocker look works even more imho.

Truth be told I like showing off the ER finned lines too. People seem to be really drawn to and confused by them. It's always one of the first questions I get.

[obscene]

Originally Posted by Flojo

According to my taste, G-bodies with their bulkier impact bumpers need the sideskirt to close the line optically between them.
Unless it is a race-/trac car that inherits of weight saving, I'd leave them on.

Only longhoods look good without These.

I second this opinion. If your bumpers hang lower than the body line, you should keep the rockers.

[tobluforu]

I had the no rocker look for a while, then I bought these waaaaay back when. I think they were fashioned after the old rs America, not sure.

[QueWhy]

Here is a 6 page thread on this very subject. I vacillated between the two for quite some time but decided on no rockers.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/632683-impact-bumpers-without-rocker-covers.html

[3Ddesigns911]

Here are a few shots showing how I did mine.

Originally Posted by Jonny042

I bet the narrow rocker deco trim could be used to cover the attachment holes near the door without being too onerous to fit.

That and a bit of black paint on lowest bits including the jacking points.

EDIT - I've also considered painting a bit of black on the lowest portion of the rear bumper finishing panels behind the rear tires to visually raise the rear.

Your car needs to be much lower for it to look right, don't lower it too much without raising the spindles and definitely cut the bumpstops front and rear.

I think all of this is what I'll try next, including painting the lower part of rear bumper finishing panels, which already have Wurth undercoating schmutz on them. I can make a nice stainless spear cover the holes that matches the stainless pieces that replaced the rubber bellows, with black below it.

And of course, lower it.

Originally Posted by 75 911s

I think it helps if the car is low. It also works better in person. Because you are typically standing and your field of vision is much higher than most photographs. When we take good car photos we get low and that sort of reveals one problem with no rockers, which is that it makes the car look higher in the middle.

FWIW AIR makes a fiberglass rocker which I was looking into. I can't justify putting the heavy rockers and rubber back on my build. I have thought about the lightweight 'glass ones and then painting them full body color. So it would be similar to a 964 look.

I've had the rockers on and off a half dozen times. Each time, it just looks heavy and sort of bumper car -ish. I do think they work better on SC's but my narrow body has some early car queues like bright work and a chrome mirror, so the sans rocker look works even more imho.

Truth be told I like showing off the ER finned lines too. People seem to be really drawn to and confused by them. It's always one of the first questions I get.

I think your car looks great, but it has much more of an outlaw/racer vibe to it. Mine is sort of a mild custom, maybe a Cal Custom bug feel, if that's not too offensive to us snooty Porsche drivers. I'm also impressed by how heavy all the rubber I took off the car is, and how much better the car feels each time I pull some weight off of it.

I plan on changing the window trim to silver, and adding a couple other retro touches to the car. But it will also get aero mirrors and some modern lighting upgrades in front.

And, of course, I'll be lowering it!